Roses
by chikahchik
Summary: Squall has a secret admirer and someone's far from happy about it. Seifer.x.Squall


**NOTE: **Written quite a while back. Not really much to say about it. I was happy with it when I first wrote it…but now that I've grown up and matured a bit…I still find it OK…but now, I think I could've done better. But…READ AND REVIEW anyways. Thanks!**  
DISCLAIMER: **characters are not mine**  
WARNING: **shounen-ai, boy/boy, slash**  
PAIRING: **Seifer Almasy / Squall Leonhart**  
SUMMARY: **___Squall has a secret admirer and someone's far from happy about it._

. . . . . .

**ROSES**

Seifer Almasy was angry. No, scratch that; he was _beyond _angry. He was fuming, vengeful, out to get blood.

It all started with a single rose; one measly white rose. Next came a single pink rose, then a yellow one, then a blue and finally a red. Seifer thought it would stop there; but the next day, after the single red rose was left on the office table anonymously, there was a bouquet of a dozen white roses. And, keeping up with the fashion of the single roses, a bouquet of pink roses was left, then a yellow bouquet, then blue, until finally, a dozen red roses came in. He had growled at the sight. How dare this person keep sending such corny gifts? And what makes it worse was that the recipient actually _adored_ being doted upon!

"Jealous, Seifer?" came the smug voice of his long time rival, and Commander of Balamb Garden, Squall Leonhart.

Seifer scoffed, "Of you, Princess? Never." he smirked, trying to cover up the turmoil that was raging in his mind.

Squall rolled his eyes and turned away. "...whatever."

"Ch', a typical reply. Do you even have a slight clue as to who's been sending you all those roses?"

"No."

"Do you want to find out who it is?"

"Well...yeah." Squall shrugged.

"It's so not like you to be excited and happy about something like this..."

"And you would know, wouldn't you?"

It was now Seifer's turn to shrug. "What would you do once you find out who it is?"

"I don't know...oh, it's not you, is it?"

"Is it such a bad think if it was?" Seifer arched an eyebrow, then rolled his eyes. "Besides, I wouldn't waste my time picking out the perfect rose to give to you. How totally clichéd and ridiculously romantic. Not my style."

"Oh...I see..."

For a moment, Seifer thought he saw a disappointed look pass Squall's eyes, but it had disappeared so fast that he thought he might've just imagined it. "Hmm...so you don't know what you would do?"

"I guess...if I find out, I'd try to get to know the person and see what happens from there..."

Seifer remained silent. For some reason incomprehensible to him, he already hated his companion's _secret admirer_. He didn't care if the person was kind, caring and all that junk, he just felt like hurting whoever it was for getting Squall's attention. The kind of attention that Squall should only reserve for _him_, and no one else. Seifer craved for that exact treatment-and he'd been working on earning it for years, but to no avail. Then this person, who _doesn't even reveal himself_, begins sending roses and Squall's all over himself. Seifer glanced at the bouquet of red roses Squall held in his hands, his stormy jade eyes narrowing as if willing it to burst into flames. He wanted it gone!

"Something wrong with my roses, Seifer? You don't like them?" Squall asked curiously.

"I told you: roses aren't my thing. They're too-,"

"Yes, I heard you. They're too _'clichéd and ridiculously romantic'_. Would it kill you to be sweet?"

Seifer laughed. "Me? Be sweet? Do you even know what being _sweet_ is, Ice Princess?"

Squall frowned, his smoky blue eyes darkening. "Of course I do!" he snapped.

"Sure, sure. If you say so...but if you ask me, roses are something that should be given to girls, not SeeD officers."

"Well, I wasn't asking you. And if you're such an expert, how would you _woo_ somebody, then?"

"If I told you, you might steal my ideas."

Squall rolled his eyes. "Now why would I do that? I have my own ways-probably even better than yours too."

Seifer ran a hand through his blond locks. He wasn't even going to bother formulating a reply; he knew where that would get them and he certainly didn't want any of it at the moment. For once, he'd just like them to have a normal conversation without it ending up as a meaningless contest.

"I'm surprised," Squall began when the blond hadn't said anything, "I thought you'd be in the middle of insulting me until next week by now."

"It would be quite pointless to do that, don't you think?" Seifer stated with a bored tone.

"Wow. I never thought I'd see the day that Seifer Almasy didn't rise up to the challenge."

"Don't get used to it."

"Wasn't planning to."

After that, both men knew that nothing else needed to be said. Seifer went back to seething, while Squall examined the bouquet in his grasp. He had to think fast-before he loses his favourite_ opponent_'s affections to someone else. True, Seifer enjoyed competitions, but he only enjoyed them when they were with Squall; to have them with anyone else was just completely worthless. Although, from the looks of things, he would have to partake in a minor antagonism with whoever was sending those damned roses.

While watching Squall marvel at the dozen red roses, Seifer listed names of people who could possibly have sent them.Quistis Trepe was a possibility, though, it was highly unlikely; Seifer knew her to be too forward to send anonymous gifts. There was also Rinoa Heartilly-but what ex-girlfriend would send roses to her ex-boyfriend, after both had made it perfectly clear that they were just better off as friends? It could be Selphie Tilmitt...except for the fact that she had no interest in Squall, whatsoever.

Seifer inwardly growled. He had listed all the females he knew that might send Squall roses, but each one seemed to be a doubtful candidate. Then, a thought struck him; he couldn't leave male admirers out. Afterall, Squall had that effeminate charm to him; no, he didn't act all girly, but his face had certain feminine features that just couldn't be denied. He had to admit, if Squall had turned out to be a girl, Seifer had no doubt that he'd turn out quite beautifully. Anyway, back to the point at hand; men who would possibly send Squall roses...there was always Zell Dincht-he _does_ admire Squall, although, Seifer thought it quite improbable, since Zell seemed to be more into women. Irvine Kinneas-but he would mostly likely just pounce on his target rather than waste his time, and not to mention _money_, by sending precious flowers. Seifer wasn't even going to think of Laguna Loire-that was just...disturbing, considering he was Squall's father and he _really _didn't want to have any mental images about that, thank you very much. And he was sure as hell the roses hadn't come from him. So _who_ were they from, dammit?

It was driving him insane, and he had no idea why...aside from the fact that he was hopelessly-though he hated to admit it-_in love_ with his adversary. But although he felt deeply for the other man, he wasn't about to go and get Squall roses; he wasn't lying when he said roses weren't his thing. Seifer liked giving gifts that wouldn't wither and die; he wanted them to last-and he wanted them to be more meaningful. Besides, why in Hyne's name would he even think about giving Squall _roses_? He didn't even know the guy liked them!

"Seriously, Leonhart, I didn't know you liked roses," Seifer voiced out his thoughts the next day, when he had encountered the Commander in the Quad of Balamb Garden holding, yet again, another bouquet of roses. This time though, it was a mix of all the colours of the previous roses sent to him before.

Squall glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. "There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Seifer."

"But _roses_? Aren't they quite feminine?"

"I never said I liked roses..."

"You never said you disliked them either."

"At least the person sending them is thoughtful-which is more than I can say about you."

"Roses just doesn't cut it for me. I like sending more meaningful gifts."

"And those would be...?"

"Not telling you."

"...whatever."

"Don't you ever tire of that response?"

"Don't you ever tire of bothering me?"

"No."

"There's your answer."

Seifer thought for a moment. "Why don't you try to find out who sends you the roses?"

"I'm sure the person would tell me who they are when they're ready. No point in rushing it."

"At least I'd have enough balls to tell you who I was if I had been the one sending them."

"But you're not the one who's sending me roses, now are you? Besides, you didn't even know I _appreciated_ roses, so why would you go and send any to me?"

"Had I known you liked them, I probably would have."

Squall raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said roses weren't your thing?"

"Oh, but if they had meant so much to you, Princes, I would've sent you some a long time ago." Seifer's eyes widened as soon as his own words had reached his ears.

Squall was surprised, but managed to shake himself out of it. "...really?" he whispered the inquiry.

Seifer decided for a moment. He could easily get himself out of this situation by throwing an insult, but was it even worth it? No. He figured, he got himself this far, might as well go through with it. "Yeah. Of course, I would've thrown in my own Seifer Almansy flare to it, but still..."

"I...I don't believe it..."

"You better believe it, because it's true."

Squall stayed silent for a long time and it was beginning to unnerve Seifer. He wanted to know what was going on in the Commander's head; but Squall was showing no signs of any form of emotion on his face. Finally, after an excruciating two minutes, Squall finally said, "Does that mean you're interested in me?"

"More or less...yeah..." Seifer released the breath he hadn't known he was holding.

Squall was silent once more. Then, a small smile began forming on his face as he dropped the bouquet on the ground beside him. Without a moment's hesitation, he lunged himself at his surprised companion. "It took Selphie, Rinoa and Quistis _how many_ single roses and bouquets just for you to admit that to me?"

Seifer chuckled at that comment as he wrapped his arms around the shorter man's waist, but then went silent as soon as the meaning of the words hit him. "W-wait...you _knew_ who was sending you those roses?"

"Well...of course. I was the one that put them up to it."

"You-you put them _up to it_?" Seifer pulled Squall away from him to stare at the other's face.

Squall smiled. "I told them that it would take a thousand roses before you finally admitted you're _undying love_ for me. They challenged me on that and told me that it would actually only take two weeks of anonymously sent roses. It all escalated from there, until I ended up daring them to prove that they were correct about their assumptions."

The blond scowled. "It's not nice to toy with people's emotions, Leonhart."

"I'm not toying with your emotions, Seifer. If I didn't care about you, I wouldn't have dared them to do what they did."

"What made them think that I was in love with you anyway?"

"Well...this moment would surely tell them." Squall chuckled. "But, I guess it was because of our antagonism. They figured that all our fighting just comes from our frustration of unrequited love. They mostly saw it from your side, though." at Seifer's insulted glare, Squall added, "Because it was always you who sought me out half the time just to piss me off."

"I guess I see it now." Seifer sighed. "So...you care about me, huh?"

Squall rolled his eyes. "No, Seifer, I just felt like making my own friends send me flowers just to see how you would react and jumping on you once I found out how you felt," he said sarcastically.

"But...why _roses_?"

"Oh geez, are we back to that?"

When Seifer didn't say anything, Squall took his chance and brought his lips up to meet those of his rival's. Seifer gasped in surprise; this was whent he Commander took his chance. He licked the blond's bottom lip before his tongue entered the dark cavern to explore the hidden contours of Seifer's mouth. Seifer soon relaxed into the kiss and tightened his grip around Squall's waist. Neither of them had pulled away from each other even as they heard three high pitched squeals, a shocked: _"What the hell?"_ and a sly: _"Oh, howdy!"_ echoing throughout the Quad.

Two days later, as Seifer entered his new found lover's office, he spotted another single rose on the table. It was quite different from the others. The rose was made out of glass; it's green stem rose up to an intricately coloured bud. Each petal was tinted with the colours of all the roses that Squall had received previously. There was a string tied around the stem just below the bud and a card was attached to it that said: _I love you, always._

Seifer smiled at the sight of the rose; and his smile grew even wider when Squall walked up to him and placed a gentle, yet passionate kiss on his lips.

Seifer Almasy was angry no more.

In fact, Seifer Almasy was happy. No, scratch that; he was _beyond_ happy. He was ecstatic; for he now knew who had sent his beloved the glass rose. Him.

**END**


End file.
